Related Articles

When it comes to IT winning back the business, it’s always the CIO who must spearhead innovation while creating an integrated, business-driven agenda – but what about developers? Don’t they play an integral part of IT’s innovation take-back? Thor Olavsrud thinks they do. In an article for Computerworld, he gives us nine good reasons why.

Developer Speed

1. Move to the Public Cloud 2. Utilize the Enterprise-Ready Tools 3. Get RESTful Coding Standards and Modern APIs

Don’t bother messing around building servers, services, or storage. That’s old hat. When you need to save precious development time, go with the public Cloud. Another time saver is the enterprise-ready tool. Give your developers APIs to turbo boost production and performance. Additionally, usability standards like REST will allow developers to build apps faster.

Developer Freedom

App development is a fickle undertaking. Don’t tie your team down with long-term service contracts. Stay flexible. Stay Agile. Nor should your team get pigeon holed into one type of platform or language. Under basic supervision, the development team should have free reign over controls to unleash their full creativity. Also, developers sometimes need their own creative project space to explore personal passions. This often produces real business solutions.

Developer Culture

8. Learn to Speak Development-ese 9. Welcome the Hacker/Maker Culture

Speak to developers on their own terms – technical terms. Olavsrud recommends user forums, hackathons, or social media. Lastly, he cautions not to fear the word “hacker.” These talented and creative individuals (when aligned with business goals) are some of the most productive members of any team.